[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 195 (Tuesday, November 17, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S7028]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Terrorism

  On another matter, over the last 4 years, our country has made 
serious progress in the decades-long fight against terrorism and to lay 
the foundation for peace and stability in the Middle East.
  We have virtually wiped out the ISIS caliphate, which was the most 
recent manifestation of this poisonous ideology embraced by al-Qaida 
that led to the attacks on 9/11. We have brought down high-ranking 
terrorists like al-Baghdadi, and we have eliminated the head of the 
Quds Force, the IRGC in Iran, that is the No. 1 state sponsor of 
terrorism in the world--Mr. Soleimani.
  We have actually strengthened our relationship with allies in the 
region, like Israel and Jordan, and taken a tougher approach on a 
unified basis against enemies like Iran. And the recent Abraham Accords 
Peace Agreement marked a historic step in normalizing relations between 
Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
  There is no question in my mind that the world is safer today than it 
was 4 years ago because of the historic progress that we have made, not 
only against terrorists but to provide the foundation of peace and 
stability in the Middle East by encouraging Israel and its neighbors to 
work together where they can.
  But our job is not finished. Dangerous and destabilizing forces still 
remain, and America's military continues to play a vital role.
  I personally appreciated General Mattis's doctrine of fighting 
terrorists by, with, and through our allies on the ground. That meant 
that we didn't need to put hundreds of thousands of American soldiers 
and marines, Special Forces on the ground. We could work through and 
with our allies, and that was largely successful at eliminating the 
ISIS threat in the Middle East.
  So I was alarmed by Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller's 
announcement today that without any real consultation either with our 
allies at NATO or elsewhere--certainly not with Congress--the Pentagon 
plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq to a potentially 
unstable and dangerous level.
  I happen to be a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and one 
of the things our military does in forward-deployed locations like the 
Middle East is provide enabling and force protection for our 
intelligence officers, who quietly work without any particular 
attention, hopefully. That is the nature of their work. But they need 
the military to be there to provide that force protection if they need 
it to enable their important work.
  So a precipitous retreat, which would reverse the progress we have 
made and fought so hard to make, I think, is deeply troubling.
  If we have learned one thing, it is about--maybe you call it the--I 
don't know if you call it the physics of military conflict or 
leadership, but history has taught us that power vacuums are not often 
filled by the good guys. It is the tyrants, it is the thugs, it is the 
dictators, it is the terrorists who fill those power vacuums, and if we 
mistakenly, even with the best of intentions, create a power vacuum, we 
could see once again the rise of ISIS like we saw with President 
Obama's premature withdrawal from Iraq.

  We simply need to learn from our experience and not make the same 
mistake again. A precipitous withdrawal would not empower our allies. 
Indeed, we have heard from some of those allies. For example, NATO--the 
North Atlantic Treaty Organization--has a significant number of troops 
in these areas that are providing training and support for our friends 
on the ground.
  It could well give rise to an opportunity for our adversaries--to the 
terrorists and insurgents who would love nothing more than to see 
American troops packing their bags so they could claim that they have 
defeated the Great Satan, as some of them have referred to it.
  We would also, I think, cause our allies to question our reliability, 
while unintentionally, perhaps, emboldening our enemies and 
jeopardizing the lives of civilians in the region.
  So I think we need to have a conversation here. We need to have a 
consultation. We need to get the military leaders before the 
appropriate committees in the Senate so that we can ask questions and 
understand the process and what the end goal is, particularly this 
close to the close of this administration's current term of office.
  I understand the desire to bring our troops home. But in doing so, we 
can't undermine the gains that they and thousands of other brave 
Americans have made in the fight against terrorism and those who would 
do us harm.